


Third Time Unlucky

by verdigrisVagabond



Category: Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Sisters, This family does not have luck with vacations, Vacations
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-07-03
Packaged: 2017-12-16 18:04:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/864997
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verdigrisVagabond/pseuds/verdigrisVagabond
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nita takes an overworked Dairine on vacation, but of course, there are no accidents, and it seems like someOne just does not believe in weeks off.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Plotting doesn't have to be subtle when the plot-ee is never home

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Independence1776](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Independence1776/gifts).



> Oh goodness I forgot to make author's notes.  
> Thanks to mutuisanimis, without whom this would not exist, because I would have keeled over mid keystroke.  
> To Independance1776! Thanks for the fun prompt! I hope you have as much fun reading this as I did writing it!  
> Also, about half of these characters belong to Diane Duane (I'll trust you to figure out which ones), as does this whole universe. I'm just playing in the sandbox.

It's almost two am when the thump of displaced air in the room across the hall rouses Nita from her reading and she sighs. This summer is not quite going as planned (but then again, what ever does?). First there was the Mars thing, and then a budding hydromage in Indonesia had wanted her to consult on something small which had then turned into a week of waterlogged frustration that Nita can't quite admit she didn't see coming, not to mention the thing with the rabbits. Admittedly, her weekly chats with the koi had been planned, even if their insults had not, and she was getting plenty of reading done, and spending loads of time with Kit, but there was something missing. Her summer was supposed to have more Dairine in it, and watching the feed from spot on her dad's phone and hearing the squeak of Dari's mattress when she finally flopped into it were not enough.

Nita pushes herself off her own bed, closing her manual with a whispered, “Bookmark that for me, if you would?” and crosses the hall, hoping to talk a little, since they're both up so late. When she peeks into Dairine's room, however, her sister is already passed out in an uncomfortable heap. “So much for that,” Nita mutters. “'Night, Dari.” She's rewarded with a snore.

~//~

Nita doesn't wake until ten-thirty the next morning, and can't bring herself to move until almost eleven, when the smell of waffles drifts up the stairs. She checks Dairine's room on the way down, but Junior Jedi isn't there. She's not downstairs either. “Did Dairine leave already?” she asks her dad, thumping into her chair.

“Good morning to you too,” he replies, handing her a plate of waffles. “You missed her by a couple hours. I think she was gone by nine.”

Nita scowls. “I was hoping to talk to her, but she passed out as soon as she got back, and I didn't set an alarm because I thought she might sleep in for a change.”

“I don't know how much of a conversation you would have had.”

“Oh?” Nita asks, spearing her waffle with a bit more force than necessary.

“She stumbled out of her bedroom, inhaled breakfast, and took off with that 'beam-me-up-scotty' spell before I was through my first cup of coffee.”

“So she'll be well into whatever she's working on by now. I was hoping to actually spend time with my sister this summer.”

Her dad laughs. “I was hoping to actually spend time with my daughters this summer, but Dairine's always on Wellakh and between wizardry and Kit I've barely been seeing you.”

Nita's face flushes. “I'm sorry, dad. We've just been hanging out a lot more than I expected.”

“Are you two an item now?” he inquires casually, sliding another waffle onto her plate and taking the chair across from her.

Nita's not sure whether to beam or be embarrassed, and it must show on her face, because her dad laughs again. “I'm happy for you two,” he says, and Nita mumbles her thanks around a mouthful of waffles, purely to avoid explaning further. Yes, so she had been spending a ton of time with Kit. But he was her partner, not just her boyfriend, so of course he they saw each other often. His expertise had been invaluable in Indonesia, and whether or not he took her stargazing on a remote island afterwards was only partially irrelevant.

“It's good that you've been busy,” he continues. “I've been working more than usual too. It means I don't get to spend as much time with you girls as I'd like, so I'd understand if I went a few days without seeing Dairine's face, since she's off world all the time. But if you're not seeing her either, so maybe we should see if she wants to take a break. I can't take time off, but maybe you two could take a few days at the beach or something. I'd spring for a hotel room or a cabin, if you'll cover the transport.” He winks, and Nita laughs.

“Aren't you worried about us being by ourselves though?”

He stares at the wall for a minute before speaking. “Yes, a little. But you're off-planet all the time, doing all sorts of good, but dangerous things. Just after spring break there was that thing with the pull-- pulu.”

“Pullulus,” Nita supplies.

“That was it. Anyways, it sounded like you were at war. And I went almost a week without any word. I worried like crazy, but you both came home just fine. I guess... If you can handle that, you can handle a vacation.”

“Thanks, Dad.” Nita puts her plate in the sink, and then crosses back to the table to wrap her dad in a hug. “That sounds like a great idea. I'll come up with something by the time she gets home.”

Her dad nods. “But for goodness sake, would you actually call every day this time?”

She snorts. “Of course.”

~//~

By mid-afternoon, Nita has rearranged her schedule a bit so that she has a week without commitments, agreed with her dad on just how much she's allowed to spend on this endeavor, and explained the whole thing to Kit, who isn't looking forward to time without her, but agrees that spending time with Dairine is a great idea. “I actually miss her too,” he had said, “so if there's time between your vacation and her going back to Wellakh, we should hang out.” But it's proving so much harder to find a vacation spot that would actually work for both of them. Nita likes beaches, but there aren't any nearby that she'd really like to visit (or re-visit), and California does not impress her. They could go to Disney World and see all the Star Wars stuff, which Dairine would love, but that Nita isn't crazy about. They'd agreed to save Europe for when they could take their Dad. Dairine's pretty ambivalent about Russia and northern Africa, Nita has no desire to return to Southeast Asia anytime soon, and the southern hemisphere is doing what the southern hemisphere tends to do in July: having wintry weather. It's looking like the best option is to go off-planet, but Nita has no idea where to start.

Admitting defeat, she shoves the computer keyboard away and flops on the desk with a grumble, frustration saturating every bone in her body. After a few moments, she pulls her phone out of her pocket and flips through her contacts, looking for assistance. Settling on a name, she sighs. “Desperate times, etc, etc,” she mutters, resignedly putting the phone to her ear.

Seconds later, she pulls it away from the earsplitting greeting. “Juanita Louise!” Carmela shouts. “What can I do for you?”

“'Meeeelaaaaaaa,” Nita whines. “What have I told you about the 'L' word?”

“You told me it exists, and that was really all I needed.”

“Ughhh, why.”

“I really don't know. How are you?”

“Frustrated.” Nita sits up and half-heartedly pokes at the keyboard. “I'm trying to plan a vacation for Dairine and me.”

“And you didn't invite me,” Carmela huffs jokingly.

“I'm just trying to spend some time with my sister, and my dad said we can go someplace by ourselves, and I need to pick something.”

“Well, you can work Google as well as the next moron--”

“Gee, thanks.”

“--so if you're calling me, it must be something Google can't answer. You want to go off-planet?”

“Yep. And I have no idea where to even start looking.”

Carmela laughs, “Oh, you are so lucky to have me.”

“Am I?”

“Yes! I was just talking to one of my friends that I met on the TV, Ak’hellan, and his family just went to this great planet for vacation. Oh what was it called... _Hey, TV!_ ” Carmela's voice rises to a shout and she switches into the Speech. “ _What was that planet that I was looking up earlier? Of course you remember, you're my intergalactic computer. That means you have memory of some kind or another. Think about it. Think hard. Come on, TV, it's important. Ānanda? Ok, thanks._ Hey Nita,” she drops back into English. “It's called Ānanda.”

“Whereabouts is it?”

“On the left arm of the M104 Galaxy.”

Nita pulls out her manual, consults it, and nods approvingly. “Can I put you on hold for a second?” she asks Carmela.

“Oh sure.”

“Okay.” Nita puts the phone down and turns to the modem. “ _Isn't the Internet great?_ ” she asks it. “ _There's so much information about other galaxies and other planets. But other planets have their own internets, too. I need you to access one for me. It's at--_ ” she reads out a string of numbers and descriptors that indicate where the internet used in the Majabūtan Empire is located, and how to connect to it. “ _\--and there will be so much new information there if you want to access it. So much new interesting information to trans--_ ”

The computer queeps at Nita, and she squints at the browser, waiting for the translation app to kick in. “ _Thank you_ ,” she tells the modem, which chirrups cheerfully. The keyboard shifts a few dozen buttons, allowing her to type properly, and she waits for Ānanda's website to load. “Wow,” she whispers, picking up the phone again. “Hey, 'Mela, you still there?”

“Yeah,” Carmela replies. “You looking at it?”

“This looks amazing,” she clicks through a few pages. “Is the entire planet a resort?”

“Looks like. They colonized it, realized it was much nicer than their homeworld, and then proceeded to make loads and loads of money off it.”

“Not a bad plan. Geez, look at these beaches.”

“The planet got divided into zones for different kinds of relaxation,” Carmela explains as Nita looks through photo gallery after photo gallery. “There's mountains with a rough equivalent to snowboarding, jungles to explore, a string of little private islands, and a delightful metropolis with theater, movies, arcades, a waterpark, and adequate shopping.”

Nita clicks over to the mall. “Just 'decent'?” she asks.

“Have you ever been shopping at the Crossings? Oh wait, yes you have, I was there. Everything else pales in comparison.”

Nita snorts. “Getting dragged through the Crossings for a highly invasive makeover is not the same thing as shopping.”

“You saw Kit's face, yes?”

“…Yes,” Nita grumbles, her blush audible.

Carmela chuckles. “Then it was totally worth it. You gonna book something?”

“I don't know,” Nita replies. “I'm just not entirely sure about it yet. I kind of want to look at more than one place. To make sure Dairine will like it.”

Carmela snorts. “Click on the third menu from the left, sixth link down.

“…Are those Lightsabers?”

“Yup.”

Nita stares at the screen, mildly apprehensive, and then prints the picture. “So I think one of the beach cabins would be good.”

“Pick one that's not too far from the city. They have shuttles, but you don't want to lose too much time on transport.”

Nita does. When she gets to the bookings page, she squints at the price, then flips to a page in her manual. She glances back and forth between the two pages and sighs. “Carmela, how am I supposed to pay for this?”

“Don't you just pay with time and energy or something?”

“They're _Sevarfrith_.”

“Oh.” There's a long silence. Nita starts to despair a bit. It's the first good idea she's had in a few hours. Scratch that. It's the best idea she's had so far. But there's literally no way to convert the currency of a planet that barely has space travel to the currency of an eight-planet empire that is halfway across the universe. “Hey, Nita,” Carmela asks, “How much money did your dad say you could spend?”

“He said he'd like to keep it under two hundred dollars if possible, but I can go up to twice that if necessary.”

“Well, the exchange rate on chocolate is pretty good. I think you could do the accommodations alone on a hundred dollars worth of Hershey bars. Another fifty dollars of Hershey bars plus a bunch of the crazy gourmet ones should cover anything fun you want to do.”

“You want me to buy a vacation in chocolate.”

“I bought myself a personal jetpack, complete with spacesuit, with candy bars. Buying a vacation is completely doable. Just check 'alternative currency' on the payment form and write a description. They'll have to approve it, but it should be fine.”

Nita does. Not half a minute later, she has a message in her email stating that her alternative form of currency has been approved, and that the Tourism Board of Ānanda sincerely hopes that she enjoys her trip. “Thanks Carmela.”

“Not a problem. I'm counting on you to tell me how awesome this trip is though, so I can see whether I should go.”

“After all the help you've given me?” Nita grins. “'Mela I'll take you sometime.”

“That sounds awesome. I've got to go, one of my friends is having a boy emergency.” She pauses. “Well, at least, I think the source of the problem is male. But I can multitask. If you drop the money by, I can get your chocolate bars by tomorrow.”

Laughing, Nita replies, “Thank you so much. You're the best.”

“I know, Louise.”

“'Mela!”

“Bye! Enjoy your trip!” The line goes dead, cutting the sound of Carmela's teasing. Nita sighs, but her good mood can't be shaken. This looks like it's falling into place. She prints off a few more pictures and shoots a note to Dairine, telling her that she has a surprise waiting for her when she finally gets home. Then, Nita prints off some more pictures, and bikes off to the store to tell her dad. This is going to be a great vacation.

~//~

Dairine finally stumbles into the kitchen at around eleven that night. Nita and her father are sitting in the living room, reading their respective books. “Got your message,” Dairine says. “Do we have any food?”

“There's chicken on the middle shelf,” Nita replies. “Although if you're feeling adventurous, you could have the leftover Chinese.”

“I'll stick with the chicken,” Dairine replies, pulling out the plate and closing the fridge door. “I'd really rather not deal with anything sentient.”

Nita snorts, moving to the kitchen table. “You could at least throw it in the trash can.”

“Nah. Someone else might want it. Donate it to the science department.”

Nita giggles. “Better not.” The laugh doesn't last long. From this distance, the bags under her sister's eyes stand out dark against her pale skin, and she's shaky with exhaustion. “Hey, Dari, are you okay?”

Their dad joins them at the kitchen table. “You've really been throwing yourself into this work with the sunstone,” he says. “And it's a little worrying.”

“I'm just overworked,” Dairine replies. “It's no big deal. I'll just sleep for a bit and then be fine.”

“Yeah, but you don't” Nita says. “You're barely here, and never for a period long enough to get a full night's sleep.”

“Is this an intervention?” her younger sister asks around a mouthful of cold chicken.

“No. This is what happens when I miss spending time with my sister and I think she works too much.”

“And when I happen to agree with my daughter,” Nita's dad adds.           

“Well, I'm assuming 'this' doesn't just involve staring at me while I eat cold chicken.” Dairine scowls at their grins. “What did you plot?”

“Nita planned a vacation.”

“For the three of us?”

“No, just for you girls. I can't take time off work.”

“Oh, I'm sorry.”

“It's okay.” He smiles at them, a little sadly. “As much as I’d like to spend time with you girls, I think you both need a bit of a break, and Nita's planned something awesome.” He nods to Nita, who pulls the papers out of her manual and slides it across the table.

“It's called Ānanda, and it's part of the Majabūtan empire. It's basically a planet-wide resort. I book one of the little cottages on a little island, but they have free transport to the mainland, or anywhere else on the world for that matter. It'll be fantastic.”

Dairine whistles, impressed. “This is a gorgeous planet.” She turns to her computer, and says, “Spot, could you pull up the section on this place in the Manual? I want to read more.”

“Too tired.” Spot replies. “Sleeeeeeep.”

Nita and her dad snicker. “If you tired out your manual, than you definitely need a vacation,” Harry says.

Dairine fixes him with a glare and flips to another page.

“Come on, Dair, please? It'll be fun. Besides, I miss you, and I want to spend time with you. Not staring at your picture on dad's phone.”

Dairine looks about ready to agree, when she flips to the last picture, and her eyes widen a little. “Are those lightsabers?”

“Yes.” Nita replies.

“You would willingly put me on the same planet as lightsaber?”

“If it meant that I got to spend time with you? I'd willingly put you in the same room as a lightsaber.”

“Wow.” Dairine laughs guiltily. “You must really miss me.”           

“If it helps,” Nita adds, “I've seen you wield far scarier things than a lightsaber.”

“No you haven't.” She hands the pictures back to Nita. “So when do we leave?”

~//~


	2. The beaches of Ānanda

Despite the fact that she was home earlier than she had been in weeks, Dairine still doesn’t get enough sleep that night. She blames too much coffee and habits. Nita gets nervous because sleeping six hours a night or less is not a good habit for her baby sister (or anyone else) to have. The two girls spend the next day tossing a few things into backpack, unsure as to whether a _Sevarfrith_ world would have an equivalent to their claudications and Nita’s pup tent. Most of the clothes, shoes and sunscreen go into the aforementioned tent, though. Why carry more than they have to?

After saying their goodbyes, their dad drops them off at the Rodriguez house where, true to her word, Carmela has somehow acquired three hundred dollars worth of chocolate in less than twenty-four hours. Nita sneaks into Kit’s room to kiss him goodbye, Carmela and Dairine share a pair of very scary looks, and Carmela leads them to her closet where the world gate is waiting…

…And then they’re at the Crossings, surrounded by architecture that never fails to take Nita’s breath away. It looks even better than when she saw it last. It looks like they’ve finally finished all the repairs from the Tawalf attack, and so Sker’ret seems a little less tense than usual. They stop to greet him, of course, but the Rirhait is very busy and they can’t stay long. They have lunch and sit by their gate for a while, reading until their gate becomes patent. Dairine hasn’t spoken much, and Nita’s worried, but Dairine assures her that she’s okay, just tired still. “And we’re gong to check out the lightsabers first thing tomorrow morning.” Nita agrees...

…And then they’re in a secure section of the Ānandan spaceport, designed specifically for wizards gating in. A young Majabūtan holding a sign that reads “Callahan" greets them warmly, and leads them to a shuttle, then drops them off at their cottage, which is far nicer than the one Nita remembers selecting on the website.

“Just how much chocolate did Carmela have you buy?” Dairine asks.

“I’m going to guess ‘a small fortune.’“ Nita replies.

It’s at the end of the 27-hour Ānandan day, so Nita decides to spend the first night of her vacation floating in the warm salt water of the cove, staring at unfamiliar stars. Her manual helps her find the Milky Way, and she runs a small magnification routine, trying to find her solar system. Dairine spends it sleeping for fourteen hours straight, in a bed big enough to swallow her whole.

 

~//~

Their plans get somewhat derailed the next morning. Nita wakes up in her nest of a bed to Dairine standing over her, chattering excitedly.

“Okay,” she says, “I know we said we were going to take a shuttle to the mainland but you have to see this planet. It is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen since the mobile’s last upgrade for Spot.”

“Nice to see you’re well-rested,” Nita replies, grumbling.

“Yes.” Dairine yanks the blankets off Nita. “Come on already, get up. We are living on the most beautiful beach I have ever seen, there’s some sort of weird breakfast on the porch, and I found what I think is scuba gear in one of the closets. I’m not letting you sleep!”

Nita pulls herself upright with a grumble, and lets Dairine lead her out to the porch, where she stops, staring. “Okay,” she says, nodding at Dairine, “This is definitely not the place I booked.”

“So?” Dairine replies. “It’s incredible.”

It really is, though, and Nita is struck dumb for several moments. On the website, she had noted that most of the private islands had been terraformed, with lovely (but small) orange beaches and minimal plant life. Their island is clearly natural, and the sand is so black it’s almost blue. She steps off the porch and takes a handful, letting it run through her fingers.

“The island’s volcanic,” Dairine says. “You slept too long so I did some reading. They left a brochure.”

“That’s amazing,” Nita replies.

“Yeah, volcanoes are awesome. The plant life is pretty amazing too, albeit somewhat lethal to most bipedal humanoids,”

Nita looks over her shoulder to the jungle behind the house, where broad leaves and vines in shades of red overlap all the way up the mountain, and wrinkles her nose. “I mentioned our species when I registered,” she said. “Why would they put us on an island with a bunch of poisonous plants?”

Dairine smirks. “I didn’t say poisonous, I said lethal. Apparently a significant chunk of the plants on the island are carnivorous.”

“So if we go exploring, use shield spells.”

“Pretty much. There’s a nice reef we could look at, though.”

Nita squints out over the water, which glimmers green in the light of twin suns. If she squints, she can see patch where sand turns to reef, and she nods. “That sounds like an excellent idea,” she says. “You said something about breakfast?”

“Catch.” Dairine lobs a pastry of some sort at Nita, who catches it and takes a bite, sighing happily. The filling is light and creamy, and tastes sweet, like spring water or a summer breeze.

“What is this?” Nita asks, climbing back up onto the deck.

“It’s fruit of some sort. It’s really good.”

“No kidding.”

“We also have three other fruits of some sort, bread, pastries, and shellfish.”

Nita raises an eyebrow, grabbing a few yellow berries. “I thought you were reading up on the planet. Don’t you know the names of any of this?”

“I was going to look it up, but then I became more interested in eating it.” Dairine gives Nita a scathing look, and starts picking at some clams in brilliant viridian shells. “These are interesting,” she says. “They’re unusually sweet and kind of coppery.”

Nita pulls out her manual out of curiosity, and tries not to drip jam on it. “Huh,” she says.

“What?” Dairine asks around a mouthful.

“The seas aren’t salty. So all the aquatic life grew in fresh water.”

“So that’s why these taste so good.”

“Yeah.”

Dairine finishes it off, and leaned back at her chair, looking over the water with a small smile on her face. “This is one of the better ideas you’ve had.”

“Gee, thanks, runt. What are you trying to say about my other ideas?” Nita tosses a berry across the table and it hits her sister on the forehead. In return, she gets a larger, round blue fruit to the forehead.

“Do you seriously want to start this?” Dairine asks.

Nita laughs. “No, actually, I want to go swimming. Bring the scuba gear you found?”

Dairine leaps up from the table. “Definitely! Last one to the beach is a rotten egg!”

Nita jogs to her room as well, shouting over her shoulder. “Are you kidding me? You’re not five!”

Minutes later, they’re weaving through coral formations, surrounded by warm green water. Nita marvels at the yellow and blue arches, swarming with tiny, flat, snake-like fish. More than that, though, she’s struck by the chorus of life in the back of her brain, hearing it in a way that she hasn’t really noticed since she first got her wizardry. She reaches out to Dairine, silently asking, _Do you hear it?_

Dairine grins around the skinny plastic tube in her mouth, and nods. _It’s a lot of life, she says, I haven’t heard it like this since the Mobiles._

Nita nods. _I think I missed it,_ she thinks. _You get so caught up in what you’re doing, defending life and all, that you forget to just sit back and feel how amazing it is sometimes._

 _Definitely,_ Dairine replies. She dives down to go after a smooth black stone, bringing it up to show Nita the colors reflected in the surface, and both girls almost spit their breathing tubes out when it pop open and four eyestalks pop out, glaring at them before back-flipping off Dairine’s hand and back into the deep, muttering something about manners.

They weave through the rock formations somewhat gracelessly, pointing out worms with spines like arrows, or fish that seem to be nothing but fins, or coral cover in polyps like lavender pearls. The reef seems to circle the entire island, and they follow it gladly, trying not to startle its inhabitants. On the back side of the island, they find a set of caves inhabited with bioluminescent algae that paints their faces in shades of blue, and small chartreuse jellyfish that hurt like crazy when they sting. (Thankfully, Dairine is good enough at healing spells that they don’t have to surface. She’s less good at not teasing Nita about keeping one’s hands where one can see them.)

They stay in the caves until completely wrinkled, and end up walking back around the island in mid-afternoon sunlight, constructing small bottles from wizardry to hold the glittering black sand. Then, they snack on more of the sweet shellfish with dense, seedy bread, and then Nita naps while Dairine does some reading on Spot.

Later that evening, after a lazy afternoon and an even lazier dinner, they’re lying on the still-warm sand in the dark, pointing at galaxies.

“See that one over there?” Dairine asks. “That’s the Mobiles’ Galaxy.”

“Really?” Nita replies.

“Yeah. I haven’t been out there in so long.” Her voice is heavy with longing.

“Why don’t we stop by and say hi on our way back? I haven’t seen them in ages either. From what you’ve been telling me, they’ve been doing some really interesting things for the planet.”

“Nitaaaaaa.” Dari whines. “Their planet isn’t on the way to anything. It’s the last outpost of wizardry on the edge of space.”

Nita squints at the stars through her magnification routine, asking it for a bit more information. “Well,” she says. “According to this, we’re halfway there. We might as well stop by. Imagine how upset they’ll be if the hear that their mother was in the neighborhood and didn’t say ‘hi.’“

Dairine laughs. “We are not ‘in the neighborhood’ by any means,” she retorts, complete with air quotes. “But you have a point. It’ll be really good to see those guys.”

They’re silent for a few moments, staring up at the stars. Nita puts her magnification routine away and gets lost in the sheer beauty of it, like she had on the reef. Dairine scoots a bit closer to her.

“Hey, Nita?” she says.

“Hmmm?”

“Thank you for doing this.”

Nita looks over at her sister and smiles. “Of course. I just wanted to spend some time with you is all.”

Dairine doesn’t say anything for a while. “No, it’s really perfect that you did this now.”

“Why?”

“Well…” Dari’s face reddens. “I’ve been throwing myself so hard into this work with the sunstone, you know? It chose our Sol, and I’m the only person from our solar system that can work with it.” She pauses. “Well, maybe not the only one. But I have access to a mentor, and training facilities and so on. Nelaid ke Seliv has been so accommodating and helpful and patient that I really want to do this well, but it’s really hard. It’s not like moving someone’s planet or yanking steel out of a star. I can’t brute-force my way through that. And I’ve been doing more detail work recently, like the Powers know I need more practice, but this is finicky detail work like nothing I’ve ever done before.”

“Yeah, but you’ll learn. You always learned things so quickly.”

“There’s so much to learn, though! And I keep making mistakes, so I figure, if I stay longer and work harder, I’ll learn more and make fewer mistakes.” She huffs angrily. “But instead I get tired and make more mistakes. It’s the first rule of detail work: If you don’t have to work tired, don’t. You miss things.”

“I didn’t know detail work had rules to it,” Nita can’t help but giggle.

Dairine rolls her eyes. “The whole universe has rules, Nita. That’s wizardry.”

Nita nods. “Point taken. You were saying?”

“Anyways, the day before you told me about this trip, I made some pretty big, obvious mistakes. And Nelaid told me to take the week off and rest. Come back when my head was clear.”

“And you didn’t. Because you’re so pigheaded when you’re tired.”

“Exactly. I went back to fix them, and it didn’t go well.” Dairine sighs, sitting up. “Nelaid was really angry. He basically told me to come back rested or don’t come back at all.”

Nita pushes herself off the sand. “Ouch.”

“Yeah. I really hope dad wasn’t watching the feed that day.”

“I’m pretty sure he was busy all day.” Nita throws an arm over her sister’s shoulders and laughs quietly.

“What’s so funny?” Dairine cries, with a glare. “None of this is funny.”

“Part of it is.”

“Which part?” Her tone is almost venomous.

“The part where I have excellent timing.”

Dairine stares at her in shock, then bursts out laughing. “Well,” she chuckles, “I guess you do.”

“I really do!” Nita replies, giggling. “I started missing you too much to deal with it the same week you need time off. And you’ll go back, well-rested and clear-headed, and be able to work without problems.” She hugs Dairine tightly. “You are scary-smart, Dair, just take your break, and then go back and tackle the sunstone. You’ll do great.”

Dairine leans into the hug. “Thanks, Nita.”

“Of course. You’re my sister. I’ll do anything for you.”

“Anything?” Dairine asks, a mischievous grin on her face.

“Well, it depends on what you’re implying,” Nita replies.

“Go to the mainland tomorrow and let me buy a lightsaber?”

Nita laughs. “Yes, of course. Do you seriously think I’m going to take you on a vacation and then not let you near the thing I used as a bargaining chip to get you to come?”

“But you didn’t need a bargaining chip! I would’ve come anyway. I missed you too.”

“See, I know that now…”

Dairine whacks Nita in the arm. “Don’t be a butt.”

Nita sticks her tongue out. “Fine. But promise you’ll get some training with it first.”

“Sure.” Dairine yawns and stretches. “Bedtime, I think. I want to get an early start.”

Nita stands up, shaking her head. “You and lightsabers…” she offers Dairine a hand and they start walking up to the cottage.

“Yeah, you’re going to regret this,” Dairine says.

“Never,” Nita replies. “Love you, Dair.”

“Love you too.”

 

~//~


	3. Lightsabers and Complications

The lightsabers are just as marvelous and terrifying as Nita had expected. Dairine lights up as soon as she’s in the room with them, talking excitedly with the attendant, who is even shorter than Dairine, and somehow isn’t dwarfed by all her enthusiasm. The attendant is, thankfully, a wizard, so they can all converse without the aid of the attendant’s computerized translator. Nita twirls a practice saber, made of a light metal, while the young wizard, her lavender ears twitching in excitement, starts Dairine through the protective gear she’d need, before dismissing it with a wave of the hand and saying “Just use a shield spell.”

Nita taps Dairine on the shoulder, interrupting her younger sister’s rapturous examination of several different, intricately engraved sabers. “Hey,” she says, “I’m going to go call dad, and wander around and see if I can find anything to do this evening. I’ll be back in a couple hours, okay?”

“That’s fine,” Dairine says. “Are you sure you don’t want one?” she asks.

Nita shakes her head. “I’m okay. I think you with a lightsaber is terrifying enough. I don’t need one too.”

Junior Jedi shrugs. “Suit yourself. I’ll be here.”

“See you later.” Nita turns and walks out, letting her feet lead her back to the open air. She wanders for a bit, admiring the architecture. The locals seem to favor circles, building cylindrical skyscrapers or gravity-defying bunches of stone spheres in various shades of orange and pink. It reminds Nita of something, but she can’t quite put a finger on it.

She ends up in a park that’s a little too manicured for her tastes, and can’t find anything to do other than call her dad. He picks up on the third ring. “Hey Dad,” Nita says. “Is this a good time?”

“Sure, honey,” he replies. “It’s mid afternoon, in case you were wondering. But for you and your sister, I’m never busy. You know that.”

“Point taken. How are you?”

“Same old, same old. How’s your vacation?”

“Amazing.” Nita can’t help but grin. “I have a feeling Carmela lied to me about the exchange rate for chocolate, so our accommodations are a bit different than what I was anticipating.”

He laughs. “How so? Not nice enough for you?”

“Well, it’s just a medium-sized private island covered in lush, carnivorous jungle, with a ridiculously spacious stone house, surrounded by a gorgeous reef and a network of underwater caves. And fabulous catering.”

Her dad snorts. “‘Just?’“ he asks, and Nita laughs. After a moment he adds. “Do me a favor, all right?”

Nita nods. “Sure, anything.”

“Stay out of the jungle.”

She almost falls off the bench. “Of course, dad,” she says through giggles. “Or if we go, we’ll use shield spells. Safety first and such.”

“I’d really rather you not go, but…”

“Shield spells are good enough?”

He sighs. “I guess so. Just be careful.”

“We always are,” she replies.

“How’s Dairine?” her dad asks. “Can I talk to her?”

“We’re actually not together right now. She’s buying and learning how to use a lightsaber, and I went for a walk.”

“Nita.”

“What?”

“Leaving Dairine alone with a lightsaber does not count as ‘being careful.’“

Nita shakes with laughter. “You didn’t object when I brought it up the first time! You’re not allowed to say anything about it now!”

“I’m your father! I can say whatever I want about it!” He almost sounds like he’s pouting, and it only makes Nita laugh harder.

“We’re trusting her with a star, dad. I think she can handle a lightsaber.”

“I’m sure she can. It’s just years of her wishing she had a lightsaber because it was the only thing holding her back from going after Darth Vader are hard to forget.”

“It’s also hard to forget that she doesn’t need the lightsaber anymore.”

“Old habits die hard,” he chuckles. “Have her call me later, okay? And verify that she has all her limbs still.”

“Will do,” Nita replies. “I love you, Dad.”

“Love you too.”

As Nita puts her phone away, she sees a Majabūtan watching her from behind a perfectly-trimmed bush. She looks at him and waves hesitantly, and he hesitantly comes over, his three-legged gait uneven, and his fuzzy blue ears twitching nervously. “Uh... I am on errantry... and I greet you?” he asks in the Speech, hesitantly.

“Well met, cousin,” Nita replies.

He sags in relief. “Oh good,” he says, ears perking up. “I wasn’t sure. I’m Āścarya.”

“I’m Nita,” she replies, smiling. “Is there something I can do for you?”

“Oh, yes please,” Āścarya replies. “There’s a bit of a political issue at the moment, and some of our people are working to resolve it and they asked me to go find people who could help, and you’re the first person I found.”

“By ‘our people’ do you mean Majabūtans or Wizards?”

He grins. “The two aren’t mutually exclusive, you know. There’s a bit of both, but not a lot of wizards end up on Ānanda. It’s mostly tourism, so it runs pretty well on its own. Doesn’t need looking after like some other places in the empire.”

“Fair enough,” Nita nods. “So do you need me to help you find someone or...?”

“Well I was on my way to meet a colleague of mine. But if you don’t mind coming along, a fresh perspective is always welcome. Especially on serious matters.” The way he says it sounds more like a plea than a request, and Nita can’t turn him down.

“Absolutely,” she agrees, standing and beginning to lead him out of the park. “I could also ask my sister to give her opinion as well, if you’d like.”

He gives her a dopey, pointy-toothed grin. “That would be wonderful if you don’t mind. I’m so sorry to interrupt your vacation but the matter is fairly urgent.”

“It’s not a problem. Although, would you mind telling me what’s going on?”

He shakes his head, ears pressing flat against his hair. “I can’t,” he says. “Not here.”

Apprehension floods Nita’s body, settling heavy in her stomach. “All right,” she says quietly, staring at Āścarya as he fidgets. This planet is so nice, and according to her manual, the empire is fairly stable. So what could possibly be going wrong?

Āścarya starts pulling at the fur of his arms nervously. “If we could collect your sister quickly, please?” he asks.

Nit nods. “Okay,” she says with a sigh, leading him back to the sports center. She doesn’t bother to pull out her manual to check her status; there’s no way she’s still on holiday after being approached with a request like that.

~//~

When they get back to the training room, Dairine is standing atop a pile of demolished robotic targets with a triumphant smile on her face, holding a yellow-orange lightsaber above her head like lady liberty, as the trainer takes pictures. “I’m not sure whether I’m glad I didn’t witness Dairine ruthlessly destroying a bunch of robots, or I’m sorry I missed it.”

“I’m sure there’s security footage if you want to find out,” Āścarya replies.

Nita considers that for a moment. “I think I’m good,” she says. “Hey, Dari, is that the one we’re buying?” she shouts up at her sister.

Dairine grins down at Nita and hops off the pile, shutting the sword off as she goes. “Yes,” she says. “Definitely yes. Absolutely yes. Gimmie a candy bar.”

After fishing through her claudication for a moment, Nita pulls out one of the weird exotic Vosges bars and hands it to Dairine, who excitedly passes it to the wide-eyed girl assisting her.

“Do you have any idea how valuable this is?” she asks.

“Not in your currency,” Dairine replies, “But I’m guessing ‘very.’“

“You should at least take another plasma sword. At least. Probably two.”

Dairine thoughtfully looks over the large display of swords. “You want one, Nita?” she asks.

Nita’s about to refuse, but she remembers that there is some kind of situation here, and it would be nice to have some sort of weapon that doesn’t rely on magic. But nevertheless, “I’d rather have a ranged weapon than a sword, if you’re going to insist on buying me something.”

“Cool,” Dairine replies, pulling a small silver gun with an egg-shaped barrel off a different rack and handing it to Nita. The assistant runs her through a crash course and how to work it, and then there’s a flash of teal light and a nice crater in the far wall. Nita grins. Plasma cannons are fun. Almost as fun as her unfavorable instigation.

She interrupts Dairine, who’s poring over the specs for two different swords. “We do have to hurry. I made a friend with an urgent problem.”

Dairine doesn’t even look up. “I’m not moving their planet.”

“I don’t even know if that’s the problem,” Nita replies. “He won’t tell me.”

Her sister frowns. “That’s never good.” She turns to the shop assistant. “On second thought, just keep the change,” she says.

The Majabūtan girl stammers a little, but eventually agrees. “By the way, what’s ‘bacon’?” she asks, reading the label on the candy bar.”

“You’re going to love it,” Dairine replies with a grin, then bids her goodbye and turns to where Āścarya is hovering by the door.

“Dairine, this is Āścarya. Āścarya, my sister, Dairine,” Nita says.

“ _Dai Stiho_ ,” Dairine greets him warmly. “Nita tells me you’re having a problem.”

“ _Dai Stiho_ ,” Āścarya replies. “And yes, very much.”

“Well, neither of us is going to be able to help very much unless you tell us what it is.”

“I know.” He makes a high-pitched whistling sound that might be a sigh. “It’s just not very safe to talk about in the open.”

“I understand,” Nita says, “but could you at least give us a hint?”

Āścarya thinks for a moment, crossing his eyes as he contemplates this. “Anarchists,” he finally says. “I’m having a problem with anarchists.”

Dairine and Nita exchange a look. “Well,” Nita says, “That’s a problem. Lead the way, Āścarya.”

He does. Hurriedly.

~//~

After a pit stop to pick up Āścarya's friend, a green-furred boy named N'yāya, Āścarya has them transit to a section of tunnels deep under the city, where they find a large group of Majabūtans sitting around a table, grumbling.

"Āścarya," A tall, blue woman reprimands, "what have I told you about bothering the tourists?"

"Kaḍaka, come on," he whines. "I think they can help."

"Fine, fine," Kaḍaka replies. "Find them chairs." She nods to Nita and Dairine, who introduce themselves. "It's always nice to have guests, and you're welcome to listen, but I don't know what you can do to assist us."

"Thank you," Nita says, sitting across from her. _Does something seem off about her to you?_ she asks Dairine silently.

 _A little,_ Dairine replies. _But I'm not sure what._

"So, let us continue," Kaḍaka says, regaining command of the room with little effort. "Our plans, it seems are finally ready. After generations of oppression of the poor, forcing us to work in unsuitable conditions, without adequate healthcare, housing, or education for our children, we can strike back."

 _Well, for starters, she's a little overdramatic,_ Dairine remarks. Nita struggles to keep a straight face.

"What exactly was wrong?" Dairine asks.

Kaḍaka looks down her nose at her. "We live in extreme poverty on our harsh, rocky homeworld or in barracks underground, while the government wastes money and energy on this pleasure garden. It could have been a place for us to live comfortably, but we're only allowed to use it to line the Emperor's pockets. Did you know that they remodeled the entire southern continent last year?"

Nita had read that, yes. "But wouldn't that help the empire?" she asks, already knowing the answer she'll get, but hoping to learn why.

Kaḍaka readily rises to the opportunity to complain. "When our people are dying in mines on our planets because the Emperor's council will neither pay to purify the air nor to provide proper structuring? Then they go home to crumbling apartments that cave in on them in their sleep. Or to die in hospitals with inadequate funds to care for their patients. It's a good thing we reproduce quickly," she adds bitterly, shaking her head, "Or our species would have died out by now from neglect, despite the fact that we have an empire spanning two solar systems and eight planets."

Nita and Dairine nod in sympathy, while exchanging nervous glances.

"I still believe it would be better to push for reform by appealing to the Emperor's council," N'yāya says.

"We've tried that!" shouts a man sitting next to Kaḍaka "And only a child would have believed it would work."

N'yāya's ears flatten and he glares at the man. "Well, what you're proposing will inevitably backfire," he growls.

"Āścarya, why did you even bring a pacifist?" Asks another member of the company.

Āścarya's face reddens, and he stammers for a moment, trying to come up with a suitable answer. "Because I agree with him!" he finally shouts. The entire room turns to stare at him, and the anger almost knocks Nita out of her seat.

 _This could be going better,_ Nita thinks to Dairine.

 _Tell me about it,_ Dairine replies.

"If that's the case," Kaḍaka says, her voice thin and vicious. "Then you and your guests can leave."

Dairine crosses her arms defensively. "That's not very fair," she says. "We don't even know what you're doing. We might still be able to be of assistance."

"Nothing about this situation is fair," Kaḍaka replies. "That's why we're going to even the tables."

"That's not an explanation," Dairine says. Nita crosses her arms and nods in agreement.

Kaḍaka whistles in irritation. "Fine then. We're going to even things out by destroying their precious cash cow of a planet, so that the wealthy and powerful cannot ignore our plight anymore."

~//~


	4. Upholding the Binary

Nita stares at Kaḍaka, her mouth dry. "Um," she says, "Don't you think that's a little extreme?"

Kaḍaka stares right back. "No. We've tried other options with no success. This is what we have left." Her voice lowers until it's almost a snarl. "If you disagree, you can leave."

Nita stands without hesitation. "Fine then," she spits, stalking towards the door. When she looks back, her sister is still seated. "Dairine?" she asks, confused.

"I'm staying," she replies. _Trust me. I have an idea._

Nita nods, trying to force her face into a scowl and pass off the worry in her voice as venom, somewhat successfully. "Fine then."

And with that, she, N'yāya, and Āścarya are ushered unceremoniously into the hall.

"What in the Empire was that?" Āścarya demands. "I thought you said your sister would help us!"

Nita drags them several tunnels away before replying. "She still is," she finally says, her shoulders tensing as she starts to pace. "She and I will talk mind-to-mind while we three try to round up some people to stop this." She stops, running a hand through her hair. "At least, I think that's the plan."

"Well, great," N'yāya grumbles. "How are we going to round up people to stop this when there aren't any."

Nita's eyes widen. "Don't your seniors know about this?" she asks. "Have you told your Emperor?"

Āścarya looks at his shoes. "We couldn't get an audience with the Emperor, and most of the seniors are busy trying to stabilize some of the other planets so that people don't keep dying."

"Our local senior gave us some tips," N'yāya adds, "but she made it pretty clear that we'd need outside help. She has her hands pretty tied with an incident on Hōnārata. The core's destabilized and the Kernel doesn't seem to want to talk to her. That's all we know."

"Okay," Nita replies. "If we solve this, I can probably help her with the Kernel; I have a bit of experience. Send her a message and tell her there are outside wizards helping deal with the anarchists."

N'yāya pulls on a strand of a bracelet that Nita hadn't even noticed he was wearing, and it expands into a thin, flat pane of webbed fabric. He whispers to it for a moment, and then ties it back. "Done," he says. "Now what?"

"Now, we go see the Emperor. We can't do anything else until Dairine tells me exactly what Kaḍaka is planning."

"But we don't have time to make a formal request!" Āścarya objects, his ears flapping in frustration as he puts his head in his hands and groans. "And busting in will just get us arrested."

Nita fishes through her claudication and pulls out a Hershey bar. "I don't normally condone this," Nita says, "But I do have a claudication full of bribes."

N'yāya's eyes widen. "Yeah, that would work." He takes the lead, bringing them to a closet that they can transit out of, and starts laying down a circle.

While he's near the ground, muttering, Āścarya turns to Nita and whispers, "If this works and we all live, can we— I have one of those candy bars?"

Nita smiles. "If this works and we all live, you can have ten. Of the good ones."

Āścarya grins widely. "Thanks," he says. Then N'yāya starts reading, and they vanish into the darkness.

~//~

Bribery with chocolate works remarkably well, although Nita can't help but worry that she's destabilizing the economy by saturating the market. Then again, twenty chocolate bars is really only enough to make a few people very wealthy or very, very in love, depending how it's used. Actually, Nita's not even sure it's an aphrodisiac to this species. So yes, she's probably destabilizing the economy. She winces. She'll have to deal with that later.

At the moment though, she's more focused on negotiating with the Emperor's personal secretary using a lot of pitiful looks, and a Vosges Salted Caramel bar. "Please," she says through a translation routine that she and her new friends had sent the last hour perfecting. "It really is very urgent that we speak with the Emperor."

"He's a very busy man," the secretary replies, trying to get his hands on the candy bar, "I'm not sure he can see you today."

Nita sighs, puling out another bar, something with wasabi in it. "It's really very urgent."

The secretary's eyes widen, before he shakes his head. "I'm sorry," he says. "It's not at all possible for you to see him."

"Fine then," Nita says, swiping the bars out from under the secretary's greedy fingers. She's done this a good fifteen times already, and would like to get on with things. Time is short. "It's not necessary," she adds. It's not, really. Things would go much better if they could, But Nita will think of something else. She should be hearing from Dairine any minute now, anyways.

"I was certain you said it was." He glares at her.

"Nita," N'yāya says urgently, and she quietly shushes him, pulling out a third bar.

"I don't know," Nita says, shuffling the bars somewhat like cash. "Is it?"

"Neither the emperor nor his subjects respond to bribes."

"Please," Nita scoffs, rolling her eyes. "How do you think we got up here?"

The secretary puffs up growls quietly. "Fine," he says, holding his hand out for the chocolate. "You have a quarter cycle."

After doing some mental math, Nita hands over the chocolate. twenty minutes should hopefully be sufficient. "Thank you," she says.

The secretary pushes a button and whispers something into the phone. "Through that door," he says, pointing.

Āścarya crosses the room, a ball of nervous energy, dragging N'yāya with him.

"Thank you," Nita repeats, crossing the room after them.

The door opens, and they stumble in, where a tall, slender Majabūtan man greets them, irritation already visible on his face. Nita crosses the room and drops four gourmet chocolate bars onto his desk. "I'll be brief," she says. "I am a wizard on errantry, I greet you, and you need to evacuate this planet right now or everyone on it is going to die."

"Is that a threat?" he asks, raising an eyebrow.

"It's the truth," N'yāya says. "A small cell of anarchists dissatisfied with your policies intend to blow up Ānanda to get your attention."

He folds his hands and scowls. "They won't succeed."

"They might," replies Āścarya.

At that moment, a wave of terror and anger rises up in the back of Nita’s brain. _Dairine?_ she thinks. _What happened? Are you okay?_

 _They’re planning to agitate the stars,_ Dairine replies. _I can’t believe anyone would be so stupid. Overshadowed wizards are the worst._

 _What does that mean?_ Nita lets herself sink into a chair.

 _They’re going to try to smash them together,_ Dairine’s shaking; Nita can feel it. _The resulting explosion will probably destroy the whole empire. I can’t stop them before they leave, but I can go with them._

 _Okay,_ Nita thinks. _Okay. We can work with that. Have Spot send me what you need and I’ll pick it up, and meet you in the corona._

_Nita you’ve never worked with a star what if—_

_Do you have another idea?_

There’s silence, and then a grumbled _No._

 _Okay._ Nita replies. _I’ll meet you there._

She shakes her head as Dairine lets the connection drop, and her manual fizzes a few seconds later, with the necessary spell diagrams to keep Nita, Dairine, Āścarya, and N'yāya alive in the corona of a star while Dairine does damage control.

“Has something come up?” the Emperor asks.

Nita sighs, hoping he’ll take her word for this. “You have wizards under the control of the Lone Power _—_ basically evil incarnate _—_ who are dissatisfied with your policies trying to run your stars together and blow them up.”

Āścarya sucks in a terrified breath. “Please,” he asks, “Evacuate the planet. Evacuate every planet you can.”

The Emperor’s ears twitch once, but otherwise his expression doesn’t change. “Why should I believe you?” he asks.

“It’s up to you,” N'yāya replies with a shrug. “But if I were you’d I’d listen.”

“If we come back, we’ll explain better,” Nita says, passing her manual to N'yāya and pointing at the coordinates of her island “But right now I need you to understand that there is no time, and if you do not listen and we fail, your entire empire will get wiped out.”

“If you fail?” he asks.

Nita nods. “We’ll be in the corona of your star, trying to stop it from exploding.”

They transit out before they can see his reaction.

~//~

They spend the next half hour on the black sand beach, laying out and double-checking the diagrams Dairine sent them. There’s not much they can do—Ideally, a spell of this complexity would be performed with at least four hours prep time, but there is no time, so they do what they can, while holding onto the shredded remains of their calm. It is then that Nita learns that both N'yāya and Āścarya are barely out of their ordeals, and thrumming with power. They will probably be more of a help to Dairine than Nita will, and she’s not sure how she feels about that. But it’s not something to focus on, and soon they’re standing on the surface of the larger star, layers and layers of shields between them and the heat, but still able to hear the roar of the stellar wind.

 They’re just far enough away from Dairine, Kaḍaka and the others that they’re invisible below the horizon, which Dairine likely planned, but that’s too far to help, so they transit closer, cloaking themselves with the bright plasma to remain out of sight. There, they can hear Dairine shouting.

“Did you do any research at all?” she howls, her voice high and furious. “This won’t destroy a planet. This will annihilate your entire species! This is the worst plan I have ever heard.”

“And you along with it!” a man shouts back at her. “You too are on the surface of a soon-to-be-exploding star! And what will you do when we leave you here without the protections of our spell?”

“Die, I suppose,” Dairine replies flatly.

 _Not on my watch,_ Nita tries to assure her, wrapping Dairine in a level of protection from their spells, but Dairine isn’t listening.

There’s a short, choppy, coughing sound that Nita belatedly realizes is Kaḍaka’s laugh. “Fine, then. Die. We don’t need you or your lying anymore.”

“I said I was staying,” Dairine replies. Nita looks around the plasma and sees her sister, chin held high and eyes angry. “I never said I agreed with you. Nor did I say I was going to help you.”

Kaḍaka growls, and says a few words to pull the shields off Dairine, but nothing happens to the redhead, who stands there with an smirk on her face.

“I suppose now is a good time to mention that she has backup?” Āścarya shouts, stepping into the open and immediately dodging a blast from a plasma cannon.

“It’ll take more than one sorry excuse for a wizard to stop this plan,” Kaḍaka replies.

“Sorry excuse for a wizard?” Nita asks, stepping into view with N'yāya in tow. “I’m sorry, but I believe that you’re talking about the wrong people. Wizards serve the powers. Serve _life_. How is blowing up an entire empire going to help? Especially when there are so many other ways to aid your people.”

“So,” N'yāya adds, “In the name of the Powers that Be, and in the service of the people of the Majabūtan Empire, I request that you stand down and abandon your plan, or we will be forced to take action against you.”

The grin on Kaḍaka’s face sends everyone back a step. “My dear wizards,” she says condescendingly. “You won’t even have the chance.” She raises her hands and a sends a ball of power into the belly of the star, burning out her life in the process, and leaving the four young wizards, as well as her two henchmen, standing upon the surface of a star in distress.

They all have a few seconds to stare at each other in shock before Kaḍaka’s assistants launch themselves at Dairine, only to be stopped by N'yāya and Āścarya.

“Keep them busy while we work on the star!” Nita shouts, not even waiting to make sure they respond before turning to her sister. “What do you need?” she asks. “Do you need my power? Should I do something? This is your sandbox, what do I do?”

Dairine’s shaking her head. “She shouldn’t have even had enough energy to make the star blink! Why is the fusion going wonky?”

“Dairine!” Nita shouts.

Dairine snaps her head towards Nita, and stares, her eyes wide.

“What do you need me to do?” Nita repeats.

Dairine nods. “Anchor me,” she says. “Make sure all my shields are fine so I can focus on the star.” She turns away as Nita nods. “Oh and if you could get the wizard’s duel off the star that’d be great.” Then she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “I just did this a few days ago,” she says. “I can do it again.”

Nita nods, looking over her shoulder to see if she can reach N'yāya and Āścarya with a shout, without endangering them. When she turns back around, all she sees is the spell diagram connecting her to Dairine, who is swimming somewhere in the core of the star, realigning the fusion. _Come on, Dari,_ she thinks, trying not to worry, _You can do this. You can do this._

 _I know,_ Dairine replies in the back of her mind. _Now stop distracting me._

So Nita waits, holding onto the spell with her fingernails, trying to ignore the shouts and cries from behind her. It’s a long several minutes, especially with balls of plasma flying past her head every few seconds. The spell for Dairine is taking too much energy, so she ends up having to use her new gun to keep stellar matter away from her head. Throwing plasma balls around an agitated star is not the best idea, but it works. Eventually, there’s a shout of triumph, from N'yāya, and shortly after another one from Āścarya. They join her at the spell diagram.

“What can we do?” Āścarya asks.

“Hold on.” Nita replies, nodding at the diagram.

And they do. They hold it through the solar wind on a shaking star, Nita whispering prayers and encouragement under her breath. They wait, until they start to shake from exhaustion, Dairine drawing on their power to keep herself alive and to fuel the spell. Finally, the surface of the star quivers and Dairine reappears.

“Did you do it?” Nita asks.

“I think so,” Dairine shouts. “Let’s get out of here.”

~//~

They reappear on Ānanda with just enough time to set up a magnification routine and watch a nice chunk of stellar mass get ejected from the larger star and absorbed into the smaller star. After that, no one has the energy to do anything but sleep.

Dairine and Nita end up spending the remainder of their vacation on Ānanda, even though they don’t really want to at this point. But there are explanations to be given, and Dairine has to monitor the stars a little more, and neither of them have the energy to jump all the way to the Crossings until they’ve spent a few days recuperating.

N'yāya and Āścarya appear to bid them farewell. They come with a basket of various clothes and a few more plasma weapons, as well as good news.

“The Majabūtan Empire seems to be going Astahfrith!” Āścarya exclaims.

“That’s amazing!” Dairine replies. “What happened?”

N'yāya laughs. “Well, Nita bribing her way in with candy bars and insisting the wizardry was real helped. But now the wizards don’t have to hide their power, and it looks like real changes are going to be taking place. Not just in magic, but also in how the Emperor looks after his people.”

“Congratulations,” Nita says. “Oh! That reminds me.” She reaches into her pup tent and pulls out a stack of candy bars and hands them to Āścarya.

“Do you have any idea how much all that is worth?” Āścarya asks.

“Not a clue. But you deserve it after saving your Empire,” she replies.

They hug and bid their farewells, and soon enough Nita and Dairine are in their backyard, exhausted.

“Nita?” Dairine asks.

“Yeah?”

“That was a great idea, but next vacation can we just go to Universal Studios?”

“Provided I don’t get dragged on errantry? Absolutely.”

And they step inside to go and sleep for a week.


End file.
